MARGAO
The decades old Old Market circle at the northern entrance to the commercial capital finally underwent changes to meet the traffic requirements after the installation of the traffic signals at the busy junction.
After a night-long operation, which began at 10 pm on Friday and ending at 4 on Saturday morning, the radius of the Old Market circle was reduced to three meters as against nine meters that existed earlier.
Chief Officer, Siddivinayak Naik, who supervised the night-long operation along with municipal engineer Manoj Arsekar said the reduction of the width of the circle would make available 225 square metres of road for public use at the circle once it is asphalted by the PWD.
“The objective behind the reduction in the radius of the circle was to remove the traffic bottlenecks. After the commissioning of the traffic signals, it had come to light that the nine meter radius of the circle was hampering the quick movement of traffic, resulting in traffic bottlenecks,” the Chief Officer said, exuding confidence that the changes in the width of the circle would serve the intended purpose.
To a query, the Chief Officer said that the work of asphalting of the road now lies with the PWD, adding that the MMC has cleared the space for the PWD to asphalt the portion of the circle.
The decision to reduce the width of the circle was taken at a high-level meeting of officials wherein it was unanimously agreed that traffic circles cannot co-exist with traffic signals, before the authorities decided to reduce the width of the circle.
